A discussion about senior-level careers in technology reflects larger debates in higher ed and society about work-life balance, different styles of leadership and—only subtly—gender. On the final morning of last week’s Educause conference here, a surprisingly large group of die-hards gathered for a panel discussion entitled “CIO or No: Not All IT Leadership Roles Lead to the Chief Information Officer.” The powerhouse group of five panelists included two longtime campus CIOs, one newly appointed CIO, one vice president for digital innovation at a liberal arts college and one émigré from higher ed who now works for Amazon Web Services. It was only in the waning minutes of the session, that an audience member, introducing her question, explicitly stated what had almost certainly occurred to most of the attendees but gone unmentioned: that all five of the panelists were women.
